Saturday, July 11, 2009

HIGH DRAMA AT MHF

Two of the MHF Sub-Committees held their meeting today, one well over due while the other meets regularly but the end result of the two meetings was confusing and baffling to say the least.

Lets take a look at the Coaching Committee meeting which saw tables being thumped by several of its members, ome abstaining in voting, while others were emotional, all towards making a point. The very fact was that the meeting itself was long overdue but what happened at the three hour long meeting saw an interesting turn of events.

For starters the members removed the Secretary of the Coaching Committee though the Chairman maintained he had the privilege to appoint the Secretary of the Committee. Prior to this the Chairman was told by MHF to remove some names from his Standing Committee. It seems the Chairman was unhappy and walked out only to return later. Whether the Chairman had the right or the Members were correct, the Secretary in question has proven that he is a capable worker.

Next was the pro-longed argument on the status of Juniors Coach K. Rajan. While one state representative was adamant that Rajan not be retained, others were of the opinion that Rajan should be given a chance to helm the Juniors for the 2013 challenge as he had done a relatively good job.

The Coaching Committee also requested the Council to review the appointment of coaches of the various teams, thus the stage is set for an intriguing battle over the next few months. I rather leave it at that and await a formal MHF announcement by MHF as to what transpired at the meeting.

Next was the Competition Committee. And this is where the baffling decisions were made which even I find hard to understand.

The Committee rejected the participation of the National Under 18 team for the National Under 23 Championships scheduled to be held in Malacca, commencing on July 18. By the way the groupings for the tournament are - Group A - Kuala Lumpur, Armed Forces, Perak, Terengganu and Project Under 16while Group B comprises of Negri Sembilan, Penang, Johor, Selangor, Pahang and Malacca.

Their reasoning was that the states were not informed early about the participation of the Under 18 team in that tournament thus depriving them of several players. If that was the case then who decided on the U18 team participation and when was the decision made? So to be fair, the committee allowed the Under 16 team to participate instead.

Next came a fatal blow to having a good working relationship with the Ministry of Education. The Committee decided to hold the Champions school Tournament from 1 to 8 August in Kuala Lumpur, thus clashing with the Premier Schools Tournament to be held in Kuantan from the 7-9th August.

With this decision, the likes of Anderson will have to decided where to participate and teams like English College, High School Malacca and TBSS may miss the Champions schools if they emerge Champions in the South Zone Premier Schools Tournament to be held next week.

Didn't I hear some say that it is schools that kill hockey? Well it is obvious now who pull the trigger. Another High Chaparal in the making....